Kimberly Hecker book A Woman of Firsts Margaret Heckler, Political trailblazers, pens the story of her mother-in -law, Margaret Heckler, congresswoman from Massachusetts as well as cabinet member of Reagan administration and ambassador to Ireland.
Ms. Heckler tells a fascinating story and in the process of gives us good front row seat of the political dynamics of the 1950’s through the beginning of the Clinton years. It begins with Margaret Heckler formative years, and it is those formative years that we see the true character of Margaret Heckler. Her parents were Irish immigrants, but her father never wanted a child and essentially pawn her off to Belinda West, another Irish woman but never formally gave her up for adoption. Her mother advise Margaret seek independence in life and to show the depravity of her father, he was even prepared to leave Margaret in Ireland with relatives but while in Ireland, he decided to bring her back to America, the land where she was born. Yet throughout her life, Margaret never deserted her father and even as she made it in politics including the ambassadorship of Ireland, she allowed her father to part of her accomplishments. Driven by her Catholic faith, she learned the lessons of redemption and forgiveness and in politics she never viewed her opponent with hate but wiliness to collaborate with them if they were on the same page. In her election against Barney Frank, the only election she ever lost, she was advised to remind voters of his gay lifestyle that in 1982 could have saved her race but instead, she ignored her advisors and refuse to go down that path. She lost the race as the local Democratic Massachusetts machine gerrymandered her district to benefit Franks.
I will emphasize how one person can have both a negative and positive impact as a public official. In the case of Heckler, she was a feminist, a supporter of the ERA, but her feminism was about allowing women an equal shot at opportunity. In her world a woman couldn’t get a loan or credit card without her husband name, the avenue of credit was closed off to many women. Hecker from the time she entered Congress worked on legislation to fix this and in 1975, she succeeded in a bipartisan way to get passed credit reform and the legislation was signed by Gerald Ford. Kimberly Heckler details how Heckler succeeded and showed a legislator at her best, collaborating with different people from both parties over a decade to get this done. Margaret was an effective legislator and while others feminist like Bella Abzug would preen for the camera, they often did little to advance the cause of women whereas Heckler working behind the scenes lined up support to move the agenda. This law along with title 9 which she worked on and gave women a leg up in pursuing athletes had the impact of bettering women lives economically.
Heckler was a pioneer, succeeding in a man’s world in which she was one of few women and as Kimberly Heckler observed she was the only woman in her law school at Boston University. (Interesting she could have gone to Harvard law school, but Harvard would not accept both her and her husband in the same class and quite frankly, the Dean didn’t care for women lawyers, so she went to Boston University, whereas her husband didn’t finish Harvard laws school and moved eventually in the financial business.)
On the political side Margaret was caught in the following changes, the first being a Republican in the state of Massachusetts, a Democratic enclave, the second is being a moderate in a party turning to the right and finally, she faced a feminist movement that cared less about economic opportunity for women and more on the one issue on abortion in which she was a pro-life Catholic. The irony is that Massachusetts had a Catholic priest in Congress who voted for abortion rights, Father Robert Drinan. Drinan political career came to an end when new Pope John Paul II made it clear that priests should not be politicians, and Father Drinan went back to being a priest.
Heckler first political congressional inroads were against the long-time political icon, Joseph Martin, a 4-decade veteran of congress and in 1966, Martin wanted one more term in congress before retiring and allowing John Parker, the GOP establishment favorite to take his place. Heckler and her husband figured out they could beat Martin in the primary and win the general. Heckler knew that this was her opportunity as in two years, she could be facing a tougher candidate. Heckler took on the political establishment and won her first congressional race. For the next 16 years she would represent Massachusetts 10th district. Heckler was a moderate Republican and in Massachusetts, this was the only way to get elected in a state dominated by the Kennedys and as Kimberly Heckler noted, even in Margaret district, registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans and independents were significant part of the districts. She had to please enough independents and Democrats to win.
This would put her odds against the grass roots of GOP nationally as the party became more conservative. Ronald Reagan nearly took the 1976 nominations from Gerald Ford and his supporters were determined to win the nomination for Reagan in 1980. Heckler supported George H.W. Bush in the 1980 primary year as both were close friends from their days in Congress as both were first elected in 1966 and Bush was a supporter of the ERA which Reagan opposed, and Heckler supported.
Kim Heckler details this struggle of the Moderate wing and conservative wing and Heckler herself met with Reagan in which he made clear his opposition to the amendment, but Heckler did get a promise from Reagan before the nomination convention that he would pick a woman to the Supreme Court. This meeting showed Heckler own political maturity for she knew she was not going to convince Reagan to change his mind on the amendment, but she was able to get a commitment to have a woman on the Supreme Court, which Reagan did with Sanda O’ Connor.
She campaigned for Reagan, and this would pay dividends later. Reagan inherited an economy with double-digit inflation and the first thing he had to do was to tame inflation and at the same time grow the economy. The recession of 1981-82 was the result of Carter inflation and Reagan supply side economic plan had opposition within the Republican party but Reagan got his economic plan passed but the impact of the plan and attempt to tame inflation had its in-side effect as unemployment went up to nearly 11 percent. For Heckler, she had to deal with a gerrymandered district and the downside of the recession. The irony is that the recovery began about the time of the 1982 election but too late to help Heckler.
1982 Election was the watershed year in which feminism became identified with abortions as many of her former allies in the feminist movement abandoned her on this issue despite the fact she was a leader in legislation that opened the door for women. Barney Franks record on women issues did not compare to what Heckler accomplished but it didn’t matter a pro-life Catholic woman could not no longer be part of the feminist movement.
Finally, Heckler details the battle between moderates and conservatives in the Reagan administration and Heckler was offered department of treasury and NASA after her loss, but she opted for Heath and Human services as she felt she could do better for America or as she remarked, she didn’t want to sit at her desk signing checks and wondered what she knew about spaceships. Jim Baker, a GOP moderate, working for Reagan liked the idea of moderate Heckler at HHS.
At HHS, she moved quickly to getting a handle on AIDS in which she quickly received funding for test to protect the blood supply and successful treatment for a disease that was a death sentence. She had to fight opposition within the Reagan administration since this was mostly a virus that was induced through sexual intercourse and though IV drug usages, many within the administration didn’t view this as a health crisis. Heckler effort succeeded in protecting the blood supply and turned HIV from being death sentences to a disease than can be managed within a period of less than a decade.
She also worked on expanding Hospice through federal programs and after 1984 presidential election was in the crosshairs of Don Regan, the new chief of staff and Nancy Reagan who was jealous of her friendship with Ronald Reagan. Heckler may have been a moderate, but her Irish heritage was the common ground with Reagan own Irish heritage and both became good friends which made Nancy jealous. As for Regan, he was trying to cut her budget, and she wanted newer health care programs just like Hospice. She won the Hospice debate but ended up the ambassador to Ireland. Ronald Reagan called this a promotion and while much of the political world understood this was a demotion, Heckler moves to Ireland proved to be a new opportunity. ( Don Regan got on the wrong side of Nancy Reagan and was sent packing shortly afterwards.)
She was the prefect ambassador to Ireland due to her own background and knowledge of the country. She worked with Irish government and American corporations to invest in Ireland and even today, Ireland is home to many American corporations. A demotion proved to be a promotion and demonstrations of her foreign policy capability.
Unfortunately, her political career ended there. Bush administration replaced her as ambassador and President Bush didn’t see fit to find her a place in his administration despite her effort on his behalf in 1980 and friendship that existed from 1966.
Heckler was accomplished woman who viewed feminism as means to open the door for women economically but most feminist today don’t even know or care that she did that benefited them by opening the economic opportunities. When I asked Kimberly Heckler what Margaret Heckler would think about men in women sports her answer was that Margaret would disapprove and view it a betrayal of the title nine and women. Heckler did not betray women or feminism but many feminists in the end betray feminism.
Consider Heckler record with her successor. Margaret Heckler supported Reagan economic plan, and her opponent opposed it. Heckler was right as this plan led to nearly a quarter of century of economic growth and even spread worldwide as our planet became more prosperous. Heckler was right with her vote and Franks was wrong. When George W Bush wanted to reform Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, Franks stood in the way. Franks opposition was a major factor in the recession 2007-09 and the housing crisis. Heckler record led to economic opportunities and Franks record close the door for many in 2007. Elections matter.
The one thing I wish I saw more of was Heckler foreign policy views. We have but a glimpse as she went from supporting the Vietnam to opposing it. Her view that American solders were dying in a war that Johnson administration was not willing to allow them to win. She became a advocate of veterans and worked on better treatment for returning Vietnam veterans. I would love more in depth on this issue and her view on Nixon plan. There are very few pages on her view on China based on personal visits and she observed if China become more economically powerful, they will prove to be threat. That was in 1975, and she proved right.
In the 1970’s was the decade of Soviet expansionism and Reagan opposition to Ford/Carter détente and which he put into action in his administration. I wish we had more on her view of Détente and the Reagan policy toward the Soviet Empire. Her handling of Ireland showed she had the ability in managing foreign policy issues but alas, we would never know what Heckler could have done politically had Bush used her in his administration.
Heckler career post government was one of helping others including her involvement with Dame of Malta, helping the poor and her continue interest in health care issues. Kim Heckler gave us a glimpse of a woman who was part of changing time in our country history and the times themselves. Heckler own ability as a legislator and the will to advance her agenda proved beneficial and very few legislators can say they accomplished as much as she did and certainly compared to her successor Barney Franks, her record proved superior.
Editor note: Reagan proved correct in not supporting ERA and wondered if Margaret Heckler eventually accepted this view, a point that was never discussed. Kim Heckler and George Landrith had a friendly conversation on this issue as George made the case he opposed ERA but as I noticed that many of Margaret goals of economic opportunities happened, and women even can serve in combat without the ERA. Economic opportunity came for many women because of Margaret Heckler. I wonder if Margaret Heckler was part of the political process, if she moved toward welfare reform. I interview Jan Meyers a moderate Republican but who played a role in welfare reform during the Clinton administration, and I imagine that Heckler would have join Meyers in promoting the welfare reform of the 1990’s which was a bipartisan effort between the Republicans and Democrats.
The Donelson Files 